1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to embedding data in material.
“Material” as used herein means information material represented by information signals which includes at least one or more of image material, audio material. Image material is generic to still and moving images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Steganography
Steganography is the embedding of data into material such as video material, audio material and data material in such a way that the data is imperceptible in the material.
Data may be embedded as a watermark in material such as video material, audio material and data material. A watermark may be imperceptible or perceptible in the material.
A watermark may be used for various purposes. It is known to use watermarks for the purpose of protecting the material against, or trace, infringement of the intellectual property rights of the owner(s) of the material. For example a watermark may identify the owner of the material.
Watermarks may be “robust” in that they are difficult to remove from the material. Robust watermarks are useful to trace the provenance of material which is processed in some way either in an attempt to remove the mark or to effect legitimate processing such as video editing or compression for storage and/or transmission. Watermarks may be “fragile” in that they are easily damaged by processing which is useful to detect attempts to remove the mark or process the material.
Visible watermarks are useful to allow e.g. a customer to view an image e,g. over the Internet to determine whether they wish to buy it but without allowing the customer access to the unmarked image they would buy. The watermark degrades the image and the mark is preferably not removable by the customer. Visible watermarks are also used to determine the provenance of the material into which they are embedded.
It is known to embed data in material. It is desirable to do that and allow the data to be removed from the material to avoid degrading the material. It is desirable to minimise any charges to the material needed to embed the data in it to avoid degrading the material. It is known to combine the data with the material, the data being scaled by a scaling factor which is chosen according to desired properties of the data when combined with the material. Those properties include one or more of: concealing the data in the material; making the data perceptible in the material; making the data, when embedded in the material, resistant to processing which, intentionally and unintentionally, removes or damages the embedded data.